TV Buying Guide

part 1

So you’ve decided you want to upgrade your living room or bed room television! It’s a long and detail extensive process if you haven’t kept up to date with technology in the past years. Before it was as simple as picking which brand you would buy and how big. Now we have terms we might of never heard before like: 4:3, 16:9, contrast ratio, 720p or 1080p resolutions, refresh rates, SDTV, HDTV, etc… The list can go on forever.

This is an introduction of things you should consider before you even walk into a local retail store or browse online for prices. This will give you some basic information to get you started on your journey of buying the right television set.

One of the most important things to do first is determine how far back you are sitting away from your television now. This helps determine the size of set that would be right for you. Another thing you might have to measure is how much width you might be working with, due to having existing furniture you have already. Keep in mind that if you have an old Tube TV (CRT) chances the television is full screen (screen shaped like a perfect square). Most televisions sold now are wide screen (screen shaped like a rectangle). Since this is the case you might not be able to say, “Hey I currently have a 27inch screen so I’ll get a new 27inch TV”. Reason is that there is a chance your brand new 26” flat panel television might not fit into the entertainment center you have. So please first measure how far you will be sitting away from the television and if you have width and height constrains (more so width than anything).

After you’ve done all that the second thing you want to consider is consider what type of television you would like to get. This is one of the more difficult things to figure out for some. I will give you a brief summary of the difference you might want to know to give yourself an idea of what’s out there before you go into a store.

I’ll start with CRT Televisions, otherwise known as tube TV’s. Chances you won’t see many of them when you enter any store. Truth is these produce one the best images on the market. They also have an extremely long life compared to the other technology out there. What’s the bad thing about these besides the fact that you won’t find very many of them? Well the obvious, they usually weigh quite a bit. A 34” CRT can weigh over 200lbs. One thing you must be very careful with CRT’s is if they have a digital tuner. Come 02/2009 if your television does NOT have a digital tuner or what is referred to an ATSC tuner you will not be able to use the television unless you have a special adaptor. Two other things to take into consideration are how the screen shape is. They can either be beveled or flat. The beveled creates more glare and inferior picture quality compared to the flat screen. Remember flat screen doesn’t mean the television is thin but that the screen of the television is flat. The great thing about these televisions is that they are a huge bargain. Don’t let any sales person tell you different if you have all the room in the back for a big CRT and don’t carry about the weight go for it!

This is the end of Part 1.

Part 2 & Part 3

Technorati Tags: CRTs, Guide, HDTV, LCD, Plasmas, Television Guide, TV buying guide

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